Future SEC reprimands to include fines, suspensions

APSEC commissioner Mike Slive can now fine or suspend coaches who publicly criticize officials.Sensing that a customary public reprimand wasn't a deterrent for SEC coaches, the league announced today that it's adding some teeth to the wrist-slap.

All violations of the SEC bylaw prohibiting public criticism of game officials "will be enforced by suspensions and fines, effectively immediately," the league said in a statement.

The new penalties were unanimously approved by the league's athletic directors with the full support of the school presidents and chancellors, the SEC said.

Do we dub this the "Lane Kiffin rule"?

"There are proper channels available for head coaches to use when communicating officiating concerns to the Conference office," said SEC Commissioner Mike Slive.

This is an excellent, forward-thinking move by Slive -- who needed to have a strong reaction to the uprising among his football coaches in the past two weeks. When Kiffin took his ill-conceived complaints to the ridiculous level of suggesting the game officials were protecting Florida and Alabama, it forced Slive's hand.

What will now be interesting to watch is to see how this new rule is administered. Will fines be the first move? And will the fines be mere pocket change to the coaches with multi-million dollar contracts or steep enough it might at least elicit a grimace from the offending coach?

What will be the criteria to be met to suspend a coach and how stringently will that punishment be doled out?

Maybe Slive should just keep all of that to himself, just to keep the coaches wondering.